


What Lies in the Razed Valley

by Gelato_Meltato



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime, Transformers: War for Cybertron
Genre: A mix of various continuities, Characters to be added according to order of first appearance, Engineering, Eventual Romance, F/M, Femme-centric fic, Hard Science, I'm going to be referencing my textbook a lot, Moonceptor, More specifically physics and chemistry, Weaponry, Wrecker headcanons, warfare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2018-11-10 04:45:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11120187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gelato_Meltato/pseuds/Gelato_Meltato
Summary: In a time where tensions between the castes are high, Moonracer of Slaughter City chases an opportunity to transcend past her designated function and put her skill as a sharpshooter to use. Her perspective opens up during her time training and serving the Wreckers as she learns much more than what she would have ever been permitted. But nothing could have helped her anticipate the individuals she would encounter along the way, including a fellow construction bot and a formally trained scientist-turned-sniper.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have been itching to write this fic for several months, but never got the courage to put it all in a doc. Hopefully the direction this goes in turns out good, I don't want to disappoint any fellow shippers. ^^
> 
> I'm keeping this first chapter short and sweet, just to establish a few important things without getting too exposition-heavy. After finals, I'll try putting out full length stuff.

They had started out in Iacon.

They had past altercations with The Razers and The Breakers. 

Their ruthlessness near matched that of the Thirteen. 

She had heard many things about the Wreckers, even been able to memorize them as generally useless factoids. But it had been difficult to distinguish fiction from reality. 

Still, the good seemed to outweigh the bad. Honestly, she had yet to figure that out for herself. 

The thought fleeted her mind as soon as the lone traveler spotted the outline of the near destroyed facilities coming into the horizon. Slowing down to a stop to observe the scene, the mint green grounder transformed and stepped out toward the edge of the narrow chip that was the only route leading up to the hidden facilities. 

Easily fascinated by the landscape around her, she gazed at the worn, but prominent Patterner markings reflecting the late afternoon light. Rapid bursts of song made her glance up as a group of lillithes chased each other throughout the shining steel canyon, their notes echoing from the jagged surface. 

She gave out a tired sigh, looking away when the internals of her calves and strut ached noticeably. Unsubspacing a cube of energon and a short straw, she swung legs over the side and stuck the thin tube through the packing. 

Letting herself finally rest for once in the several cycles, the antsy petite took a long sip of her drink and admired the rare sight. Optics eventually drifted back toward the buildings and the immense sense of curiosity she tried covering up bubbled to the surface. 

Unable to contain it anymore, she nearly tossed aside her cube to carefully pull out a back-mounted customized rifle. Raising it such that the long, slender scope met her face level, she peered into it, quickly finding the training grounds, and adjusted the focus to take in the finer details. 

She noted that the structures hadn’t been as completely rampaged as they had first appeared. The twin squat buildings in the center were very intact and a large auditorium looked to be only half exposed. Makeshift shelters dotted the surrounding area and a small turn to zoom in closer in gave glimpses of berths and storage containers. 

There even seemed to be much taller tower that wasn’t too worse for-

A glint, clear as day, came into view just as a voice boomed over the comm. 

“Cadet Moonracer!” 

She jolted up and clutched her weapon out of instinct, spark racing as she pressed her digits to her cranial unit. “Present!” 

The unamused mech on the line waited a nanoklik to speak, as if to express that he disappointed by her antics. “This isn’t a factory roll call, _soldier_. Your briefing had clearly stated that you were to comm in once you arrived within five kliks of base. Instead, I find you appearing as an enemy, aiming your rifle at us. What do you have to say for yourself, then?” 

Moonracer cringed at the underhanded statements, unsure how to best interpret it in the presence of an unknown superior. “I’m sorry, sir?” 

“It’s Commander Ultra Magnus.” 

Eyes widened with horror as she recognized the infamy behind that designation. _Slag it all to the Pits._

Straightening her spinal strut a bit, she took a shaky vent and replied, “I apologize, Commander Ultra Magnus. I hadn’t realized that I was presenting myself that way.” Trying to ease the encounter, she added, “I wasn’t sure if I was heading in the right direction.”

“Which is why you had your instructions.”

“Yes, I realize my mistake, Commander. Magnus.” She flinched as she barely caught onto her error in addressing Ultra Magnus by his full title.

Fortunately for her, he seemingly ignored it, instead saying, “I still expect that you come into the main offices, in order to have you officially processed and cleared for training.”

She took the time to put away her rifle while he continued, “I am sending you an official map of our facilities. Note you weren’t allowed previous access until you were in close proximity and confirmed with either I or another staff member.”

A _ping_ came in and she opened the attachment, pouring over the compilation of floor plans of the buildings she had sighted earlier, as well as what looked to be underground rooms and tunnels.

”I can see why.”

“You will need to make haste to arrive before the end of this joor. Our offices won’t remain open any later than necessary, regardless of any requests.”

Moonracer checked her chronometer and nearly jumped out of her own protoform. “Affirmative,” she managed out as she transformed and rode along the road as fast as she could safely permit herself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I was able to get the naive femme down well in this chapter. Made an immediate update without beta because lord knows when I would have finally posted this one.
> 
> Percy's not in this one, but, not to fear, Moonracer will come across him soon enough. ;)

The sky was beginning to darken into a muted indigo when she sped past the barracks, catching onto a fit of curses as she nearly ran into a passerby. Too preoccupied trying to beat the clock, Moonracer ignored them while racing to one of the two short edifices, labeled on her map as Main Building 2A.

Nearing the south side entrance, she bounced on her two back wheels and transformed, landing on her pedes before giving a running start toward the large metal doors. Slowing her pace and taking hold of the worn brass handle, she gave it a quick tug.

To her surprise, it didn’t budge. Panic set in after she jiggled the handle without any success.

She feared that the door was locked shut. But that couldn’t be true, she was sure there was still time left!

Her face twisted with effort as she leaned her body weight away from the door while tugging. Heels dug into the ground while the hinges creaked in protest.

She gave out a last grunt once it finally gave way, a small space just enough for her to slip through.

Once inside, she paused a moment to consult the building layout and to let her overworked engine get a break before sprinting off to her destination. It quickly crossed her processor that she could cut down her time by several nanokliks by going in vehicle mode, but decided against it. If Magnus was really as by-the-rules as she’s heard, the last thing he would want hearing about would be their new recruit making a bigger mess of the place.

And right after giving her a warning for using her scope.

That alone sent shudders up her strut while she turned a corner. If the combination of the two didn’t get her kicked out, she didn’t know what would.

A faded sign, spelled out in neatly painted Autobot characters, stuck out to her immediately as she crossed the corridor.

She skid to a stop once she saw the entrance, as well as the lack of anything stopping her from coming inside. Walking up to it, she peered into the space inside.

A persistent, but weak, strip of lighting surrounded the edges where the ceiling met the walls. The dull sepia glow blanketed the piles of dust-covered datapads on a large desk and the corroded furniture crammed into the small area of the room.

Still, she didn’t see any signs of life within. Worried that she had arrived late, she knocked repeatedly against an undamaged portion of the doorway.

”Is anyone there? I’m here for a-”

A yelp, followed by hasty typing and the sound of a cabinet being flung open, interrupted her. A blue helm nervously poked out from behind the datapads.

”H-hi, did Commander Magnus send you over to check up on me?”

Her optic ridges furrowed slightly and she shook her helm. ”I’m just here to get processed before I start training. I hope you haven’t closed for the solar cycle yet.”

His light blue optics blinked at that while he slowly retreated back down to his seat. “Oh. Well, I’m supposed to close in about fifteen kliks. I’ve got other things to do afterwards.”

She frantically stepped into the room and toward the cluttered desk area. Standing on her tip-toes and peering over the counter, she exclaimed, ”Please? I’ll make it quick, I promise!”

Seemingly engrossed with the white console in the only unoccupied corner of the desk surface, he murmured through his facemask, ”With the current system we have, I doubt it.”

Her shoulders slumped dejectedly. She felt it unfair that she had rushed to get the task done for nothing.

But she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Does it really take that long to get it done?”

”Typically,” was his clipped answer.

She huffed with irritation. ”Does this mean I need to wait until next cycle to come back?”

He stopped his typing to glare up at her. ”What? No, I’m not going to turn you down. I just started booting up the program!”

He put his focus back to the main display. “Name?”

”Moonracer.” Hoping to get this new bot into conversation and maybe get a feel on how things worked around here, she asked, “What about yours?”

”Magnus didn’t tell you when he sent you here? Figures.” Entering her name into the database brought back a single match, much to his surprise. “It’s Ironfist. Not a common designation, but not as rare as yours.”

Clicking on the profile, he skimmed through the description. ”Huh. So, you worked at the smelting mills of Slaughter City.”

She quirked an optic ridge and scoffed, ”Yes. What about it?”

”Don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought that bots from there would be more…” he faltered off while he input a series of commands to bring up her registration form.

”Grungy?”

He awkwardly grimaced, keeping his gaze on the three displays before him, anywhere but her. ”Not my first choice of wording.”

Wanting to break the air of discomfort, she giggled lightheartedly. ”Hey, I said it, not you! People mistake me for being from another city-state all the time and I thought you’d be as shocked as they were.”

”Just know I wasn’t thinking of telling you that, okay?”

”Okay,” she repeated, planting her weight back down on the aching soles of her pedes and stifling a yawn.

”We’re almost wrapping things up here. You have to take a recent picture and sign a few forms. That should be all I need on your part. I think the next bot will send out your schedule within a couple joor after this places opens up again.“ He took his attention off the computer to walk over to a nearby cabinet, then came back with the documents on a slim piece of hardware and a stylus.

”Thanks”, she said while taking the items. The light rod flew across the glassy surface as Moonracer scrambled to fill out sections of the datapad.

Unsubspacing a camera, Ironfist added, ”This took less time than it did with the others. It was a good thing you were so easy to find.”

She handed over the items with a relieved grin, happy to know that the proceedings would soon be over. “So where do I go from here?”

Taking a quick shot of her, he took his time to say, “Usually, I’d tell the new cadets to go the barracks for the night. But your case is definitely different.”

She frowned at that. ”Why?”

”It’s a bit of a complicated issue-”

Sick of the strange way Ironfirst was taking the subject and deadbeat tired from the earlier trip, she asked, ”What exactly is the problem that you can’t point me to where everyone else goes?”

Though visibly irritated by her behavior, he maintained a calm demeanor as he replied, ”Moonracer, we don’t have any other femmes here, meaning that there isn’t a section I can definitively send you too.”

”So I have to share quarters with the other mechs on camp?” she asked once she put two and two together. That was certainly unexpected, she could have sworn that there was at least one other femme attending training. ”T-that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

He rolled his optics, deciding not to argue any further with the stubborn cadet as he packed up his belongings. ”Riiight. Well, regardless of how you feel, I would personally suggest you claim an empty tent before most start calling it a night.” He ducked down to collect a few personal datapads from a drawer as he said, “Which, considering usual roll call time, is very early.”

She paused as she slowly thought it over. Sleeping alone was something incredibly unusual for the molder-gone-watch guard who spent her whole existence in close proximity with workers. The familiar sounds of snoring and venting, the warmth emanating off of nearby bodies, and the nice feeling of knowing that there would always be someone around to watch your back was too much to let up.

The only difference now would be that she would be with those of the _opposite sex_.

”Thanks for the tip, but I think I’ll pass. I shouldn’t try and get any special favors.” She walked out toward the doorway and repressed a gulp, calling out behind her, “Besides, I have to get to know bots around here. The sooner, the better.”

He gave a defeated sigh and shook his helm, murmuring while he made his way out and turned out the office lights, ”Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

//

The map pointed out that there was a designated section for newcomers within the cluster of temporary housing units. A bit consoling, since that lent to the possibility that she wasn’t the only recent recruit.

Coming across the surprisingly small tent, she crept closer and leaned in, hoping to figure out how many people would be her tentmates before she introduced herself.

”-and suddenly the dense lugnut comes in and decides to ruin it for the rest of us by telling one of the higher ups about our little Sentinel effigy idea. Technically that warrants an act of treason if we were reported to the authorities, but, thank Primus, the bot Breakdown told happened to be one of the few that didn’t vote for our new Prime.”

A more aged voice replied, ”Oh wow. Who saw that coming?”

”So instead, he gets told off. Word gets around and eventually everyone know better than to tell that loose vocalizer of anything that happens during afterhours. After a while, he gets so peeved that he kept to his namesake on the job and got himself fired.”

”Serves him right! Though I wonder where an uptight aft like that would have gotten up to afterwards.”

”I’m not too sure what became of him, unfortunately. I still want payback for that mess he made back on Iacon...”

Taking a moment to brace herself for whatever may come from the first night, she put her hand on the tent flap and pulled it aside. “Hi,” she greeted them with a friendly grin.

Both mechs looked over at her direction, each seated on opposite berths in the very front of the entrance. Four more recharge berths were located further back, one of which already had various items situated on top of it.

”Hey there,” the larger one of the two, an olive green grounder, waved back.

”I was wondering when you would finally come in,” the elder white bot with green and red decals replied with a huff.

Her smile fell and she blinked twice. ”How did you-”

He chuckled. “I could hear you sneaking up from a gunshot away. Just because there’s a tent separating us and the outside doesn’t give you the element of surprise.”

”Oh, come on, I wasn’t even trying,” she said as she came in.

”Didn’t matter if you were. You came here to learn how to best take out enemies? You’re going to need to become well-versed in stealth.”

She took a seat on an empty berth next to him as she sheepishly replied, ”Actually, I’m here as a sniper. I don’t know how that’s going to help me when I’m hundreds of mechanometers away from the target and all I have to do is aim and pull a trigger.”

”The fundamentals stand, no matter what your role as a Wrecker is. Take for example, Bulkhead here,” he gestured to the other mech in the room. “Large guy, likely going to the muscle of the team. Doesn’t mean that he won’t be put in the situation where he needs to be a little quiet.”

”And Jackie’s more of the explosives type of individual,” Bulkhead added. “He might need to sneak into an enemy base to plant some bombs.”

”As for a sniper, I’d say that, in the case you have to find roost in a relatively populated area, you’d need to do so without detection.” He leaned back, servos pressed against the bed to keep him upright, and shrugged, “The enemy’s going to have better audials that I do.”

She took a moment to ponder the scenario. “I guess I didn’t think about it that way. Whenever I do my thing, I usually have a spot all figured out.”

”Femme, when you’ve been here as long as I have, you’ll see that things don’t often go according to plan.” Getting up, he said, “Stealth ain’t my jurisdiction though; I’m still learning just like you and Bulk are. But, if you ever happened to get placed in a Weaponry class, I’ll impart you with more knowledge than the Elite Guard themselves could ever hope to teach their newbies.”

Moonracer’s optics widened with surprise. ”Wait, you’re not a recruit?”

”Slag no! Those times are long gone, thank Primus.” Going over to the open tent flap, he said, “I teach in between missions and private workshop sessions. Only way I stay in good terms with our uptight Commander.”

Bulkhead leaned forward once he saw the detonation expert make his way out. ”You’re calling it a night already?”

”Gotta make sure the Jackhammer’s fully optimized before that.” Peering in one last time, he added, “That and I’ve need to have a word some of the night owls in the lab. Shouldn’t take too long.”

”Oh, okay, I guess I’ll see you next cycle then.”

”Try not to break any more doors before then,” he snickered before closing the flap.

Moonracer looked over to the occupied berth, beginning to have serious second thoughts about her decision to sleep in the recruits’ tent. “Hey, when is he coming along?”

Bulkhead glanced toward the berth next to him. ”Oh, Pyro? He said he was going to do practice before coming back, but he didn’t quite say by what time.”

”O-okay,” she mumbled back nervously. Her processor nagged her to tell him that she was going to move into the tent permanently, but she hesitated doing so, especially when the other mech wasn’t there.

What would they both think about sharing a space with her? What if they openly rejected the idea?

”Why, is there something you wanted to tell him?”

”No, no!” she exclaimed, waving her servos in front of her. “I just wanted to meet another recruit, is all.”

”Well, I’ll let him know that you’re around, Miss, uh…”

”Moonracer,” she said as she quickly glanced at the map on her HUD for any empty housing units. Looking back up to meet his gaze, she added with a polite smile, “It was nice to meet you, Bulkhead. I hope I see you again in one of my classes.”

”Same here. I’ll keep an optic out for you as well.”

”Good cycle,” she said and slowly walked past him, running as fast as she could to the nearest single berth tents only after she was finally outside.


	3. Chapter 3

When her schedule finally arrived, Moonracer had been lying in her berth for a couple joor, optics wide open while she shifted positions. She spent so long trying to recharge that she eventually gave up and resigned to staying awake the whole night.

Sitting straight up as soon as the _ping_ came in, she quickly opened the data pack, pouring over the contents excitedly. She received a letter and a document full of time blocks.

Ignoring the letter, she went over her schedule, mindfully keeping track of all activities planned out for each cycle.

Pulling up the training grounds map, she matched up each session with their respective locations.

Sniping practice every solar cycle at sunrise within the Northernmost part of the site.

Gathered assembly at the main courtyard in between her Self-Defense and Elementary Classical Physics classes-

She mentally paused and rubbed her half-opened optics, wondering if it was her tired processor playing tricks on her. Wasn’t physics a science? Why was she being put in a science class?

It was still too early to go to the main office to ask if a mistake had been made. A new bot would be in, which meant she would have to explain her whole situation to them all over again.

She groaned to herself. That is definitely something she didn’t want to deal with all over again.

Her thoughts went back to what that explosives expert told her, about how stealth was important even for a sniper like her. Could physics be one of those things as well?

Too anxious to continue to remain in her berth, she unsubspaced her rifle and exited her lonely tent to walk out into the cold dusk air.

Maybe getting a head start on her daily practice session would calm her nerves.

//

Besides the couple of impressive target sheets she came out with, that morning had been relatively uneventful. The self-defense course, taught by a rigid instructor named Devcon, only touched upon the vitals on a typical Cybertronian. There were no in-depth demonstrations yet but, just before classtime ended, he said he would be pairing people for a group activity next time they all met.

And now, barely able to remain alert during announcements, did she wish she had tried recharging in the early joor of the morning as opposed to going straight to the range.

”-Quintesson activities continues to remain under watch,” Ultra Magnus read off to the group of a dozen or so unenthused mechs and the lone femme. It seemed that she wasn’t the only one completely ignoring news from the outside world, as more than a few Wreckers were displaying their expertise with dozing off while standing, kneepads locked in place and keeping them from swaying or slumping over too noticeably.

She would have laughed if she hadn’t felt as tired as they did.

”And, lastly, our current away team, led by Springer, is set to arrive within the orn.” Magnus took on a weary tone as he added, “An exact time cannot be determined, as we have no way of knowing how much trouble they will run into upon entering Breaker territory.”

He took a moment to look upon the crowd from the raised platform, then subspaced his datapad with an aggravated huff. ”That concludes our announcements for this cycle. Any further updates will be briefed in next solar cycle’s assembly. As always, personal matters and emergency information will be sent out as soon as we are informed. You are all dismissed.”

Moonracer stifled a yawn from behind her pursed lips just as nearly everyone began rousing from a half-functioning state. They slowly shuffled off to their engagements while she took a klik to check her schedule and map one last time.

She needed to head over to a large lecture hall inside of Main Building 1, a semicircular room that took up a good section of the eastern part of the edifice. Unfamiliar with that part of the structure, she rushed off to the entrance while keeping her attention to the diagram on her HUD.

”Ooof!”

Barely aware of her surroundings, she was taken aback when she bumped straight into a heavy, olive green wall.

Bouncing off the metal surface, she landed aft-first, her back skirt armor scratching against the floor with a horrible screech. Disoriented, she barely registered the shifting mass above her.

”Oh, I’m real sorry about tha- Moonracer?”

Shaking herself out of her stupor, she glanced up to see a familiar face and an enormous, outstretched servo.

”Bulkhead!” She took hold of him, her smaller servo engulfed in his, and, with his help, got off the ground. “Hey! You got a class in this area?”

”Yeah,” he said, mouthplate tightening with nervousness. ”I got put into some sort of Physics class. We all have to do it from now on.”

”Why’s that?”

”Pit if I know. All Jackie said was that it was just for scientists, technicians, engineers, and snipers.”

She stared at him incredulously. “Since when?”

”Apparently since the facilities first operated. But I guess you’re going to find out why that is soon enough.”

”Yeah,” she replied offhandedly as she continued in the direction of the lecture, an uneasy feeling bubbling up in her empty tanks. So, even if these new rules hadn’t come up, she would have still been put in the class.

But why? She knew that you didn’t need to be an egghead to be a sharpshooter. It only ever took knowing how to aim, maybe knowing a few basic commands. Nothing too complicated.

”I don’t know how I’m going to get through this.”

Her helm tipped up toward him as he frowned. “I can’t imagine what sort of things we’re going to see.”

”No, I mean it,” he blurted out, worry growing on his faceplates. “I- never really went to any sort of academy before this.”

She bit her lip components, more than familiar with his situation. ”No schooling?”

”I only ever learned how to build and weld. And no one’s would ever lay down the credits to educate a construction bot like me.”

”Ah, yeah, I bet.”

Bulkhead turned his head down to her, asking, ”But you’re familiar with how school works right? You seem white collar, so I figure you must’ve had training of that sort.”

Her brow furrowed with embarrassment when she heard the poor bot’s misconception. As her optics glanced down and her shoulders hitched slightly higher, she murmured, “I was in the manufacturing sector, sorry Bulk…”

”Oh. I guess that means we’re starting from square one, huh?”

”Mmhmm.”

They both looked up once they heard the sounds of chatter at the end of the long hallway. Five other bots were waiting outside the entrance to the hall, all of them seemingly hesitant to enter inside.

Confused, she walked up to them. ”Hey, do you know if the instructor’s in yet?”

A tall, slender aerial mech leaned back against the wall as he replied, “You mean Perceptor? He’s been there for a while, but hasn’t told us to come in.”

”Knowing him, he’s probably setting up for a demo,” a stockier yellow and blue bot with twin propellers chimed in, his vocalizer coming off as slightly gurgled. “I heard he goes all out with those.”

”How early do you think he’s going to start dropping exams, Seaspray?” a relatively shorter, bright red grounder meekly asked behind a drawn in facemask. “I’ve never taken anything like this before. I don’t even know where to begin.”

”I’m surprised he hasn’t sent out any class information detailing that,” he replied as he crossed his arms. “In my experience, instructors **should** send out a syllabus at least a joor in advance!”

”Perhaps it’s because I wanted to see how well I could keep you on your toes.”

Seven helms turned over to look at the mech peering out of the open doorway, his mouth pressed in a thin line as he quietly examined the students before him. Rather than address the mech in question, he said, “Grab the datapads on the countertop and take a seat.” He came back inside, but not before calling over his shoulder, “And, please, don’t touch anything else on there.”

Being closest to the classroom, Moonracer felt pressured to go inside. Taking a quick vent, she walked into the automated entrance, the door silently sweeping by her once she reached it.

Her optics were quickly assaulted by the flood of lighting filling the large room. Blinking away the ache, they adjusted until she finally saw the gaping hole above their helms, sharp metal edges curving to hint where there once was a vaulted dome.

She looked away just as she caught Perceptor’s gaze. He had been staring at her, as if he was expecting her to do something.

She immediately remembered his instruction and rushed to the front of the desk. Near the corner was a small stack of datapads. At first glance, they seemed just as bulky as any other one, but with a much wider screen. But, upon closer inspection, she noticed that the screen was not surrounded by any sort of border, instead wrapping around the edges.

She picked one up and slowly walked to her seat, both servos grasping it cautiously as she ran thumb digits down the smooth sides. There was something about the material that was off. This one didn’t seem much hardier than the few she’s ever been entrusted.

She took a seat at the front without much thought while she continued to examine the sizeable device, turning it over and trying to figure out how to turn it on.

As far as she knew, standard datapads typically had their power on buttons along the side, but this one was completely devoid of any switches or interfaces that may have been used for that purpose.

Then, as if he were reading her mind, Perceptor turned his attention to the other mechs taking a datapad each and said, “These datapads were specifically made for the activities of this course, some of which I’ve planned to take out of the lecture hall. To activate them, you simply need to press the center of the screen for more than three nanokliks.”

She pursed her lips as she complied, the screen remaining dark until circles of light pulsated around her index digit. She drew her servo back in surprise, watching as the patterns continued only to slowly fill the display with a colorful animation while the device started up.

”There should already be several applications that you can access at this point in time. For the purposes of the first unit of the Introductory Physics series, you will use a simulation program called _Mechanics Now_.”

”Now if you can turn your attention to the icon on the-”

A loud clatter echoed throughout the room as one of the datapads fell on the floor, the edges hitting the floor before it lay flat in front of a pair of golden pedes.

Everyone’s optics were transfixed to the culprit: the same agitated grounder from outside. He remained silent as he glared at his datapad, afraid of make a move and risking dropping it again with his coolant soaked palms. For a klik, you could hear a pin drop in the deathly quiet room.

Perceptor wore a passive mask when he finally broke the silence. ”Young bot, may I have your name please?”

The mech’s blue optics remained glued to the facedown datapad like a young sparkling about to be lectured to by his sire. ”Pyro.”

”Well, Pyro, thank you very much for demonstrating an important feature and a goal for this class all at once.”

Going over to pick up the ‘pad, he bent down and showed the pristine screen to the frightened student before handing it back to him. “A few of us have been experimenting with the design over the past twenty solar cycles. So far, we have made the nearly impact-proof, among other things.”

”And something this innovative hasn’t been made available to the public because...?” the hovercraft in the front burbled.

”Because this is still a prototype that our scientists and engineers at this facility have yet to fully work out the kinks. As a collective, we aim on making it able to withstand all of Cybertron’s extremities. And what better way to ensure it does than to test it with special ops.”

”I suppose you’re right.”

”Now, this was also meant to segue to my next talking point, which was… ahh, yes.” He went over to retrieve two items from the table, a flask with clear fluid, a beaker, and an incredibly small vial of powdery white solid.

”Everyone please remain seated while I conduct this simple experiment. I understand that I am not teaching a chemistry class, but this is the least destructive method I have of showing you.”

The remaining mechs retrieved their datapads and took their seats in the front and second row, watching as Perceptor stepped in front of the blank slate backdrop of the blackboards.

”A favorite aspect of general chemistry when I first began my studies was equilibrium chemistry.” Placing the items down and grabbing a stick of chalk, he neatly wrote down:

2 H2O ⇄ OH- + H3O+

”This is the equilibrium equation for water. In room temperature, it stays balanced due to a concept known as Le Chatelier’s Principle.”

At that point, all she heard was something that could have been incredibly important. Attempting to figure out how to work with the new hardware, Moonracer opened up a note-taking application on the datapad and copied the strange symbols as she followed along with the unfamiliar jargon.

”A figure that is important before moving on is this.” He now drew a graph, with the words “pH” to the left of the X-axis and “Volume of base” on the Y-axis and a strange line that had a steady curve up until a point where it skyrocketed suddenly before nearly plateauing. “Can anyone tell me what this is?”

Immediately, an aqua blue hand shot up.

”Yes. What’s your designation?”

”Seaspray,” the mech blurted out as he contemplatively brought a servo to his chin. “And, to answer your question, that there’s an oversimplification of a titration curve of a weak acid with a strong base.”

Perceptor nodded tersely. “To put it bluntly. But you are correct.” He went back to the diagram, placing a dashed line to where the graph suddenly shot up. “The fact that it’s a weak acid and a strong base is what makes this a special situation. At a certain concentration, this balance is shifted such that it the pH rises and the solution quickly becomes basic. This occurs at the equivalence point.”

The femme quickly wrote the changes, though became completely lost once he mentioned “titration”. Still, she remained attentive, hoping to pick up on some sort of cue that would help make his explanations easier to keep up with.

”Now, what if I were to titrate this solution with too much base...” He flicked his wrist to pour in the rest and the class could immediately see the swirl of intense pink as the base saturated the solution.

He set the beaker aside on the tabletop, adding, “This has gone past the equivalence point and has a much higher pH than before.”

’’In this case, you can’t put a rough estimate on how much base you need. You would need to put a precise amount to reach that point. This is the purpose of this class, to demonstrate this fact and teach you all how to calculate a certain amount and within correct parameters.”

”Not only will I go over physics conceptuals and error analysis, I will teach you how to think critically and problem solve. I understand we have a stigma as Wreckers, always the ones charging into certain death. But we haven’t survived this long without some tact.”

”That’s what’s setting us apart from the Razers at least!” a voice from the back called out.

The class erupted into guffaws, the majority of them having come face-to-face with the ruthless arsons infamous for accidentally setting their own storehouses aflame.

Despite his serious demeanor, Perceptor couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. “Yes, you’re quite right, Mr-”

”Twintwist. And none of that Mister bullslag please, I ain’t my sire!”

”Right, settle down now,” Perceptor replied, motioning him to sit back down. “Class still hasn’t ended and we have to finish our lecture with vectors today.”

Twintwist leaned back with a smirk.”Aight, take it away.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to add much more to it, seeing as I was already being put to sleep writing all that gen chem stuff.
> 
> With any luck, I'll be able to delve more with some of the characters as seen in this chapter. Romance stuff comes later though, unforturnately. :^(


End file.
